


Out of the Cold

by osprey_archer



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/pseuds/osprey_archer
Summary: Before the war, Bucky runs into a half-frozen Steve on the wrong side of town. Cuddling ensues.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 88





	Out of the Cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lies_Unfurl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lies_Unfurl/gifts).



> Lies_Unfurl asked for Steve/Bucky, “Out of the cold?” and this went a pre-war pre-slash Steve & Bucky place because I wanted to write cuddling.

“Steve?”

Steve clenches his teeth to keep them from chattering. That means that he can’t answer Bucky’s startled greeting, but it doesn’t matter, because Bucky’s crossing the street already anyway.

“Steve? What the hell are you doing out here in this weather?”

The sleet is turning into actual snow as it gets colder. “Just taking a walk,” Steve says, attempting to sound devil-may-care, which doesn’t work at all because as soon as he unclenches his jaw his teeth start chattering like a wind-up toy. 

“Why?” demands Bucky. He’s already got an arm around Steve’s shoulder. The warmth is painful.

“What’re you doing on this side of town?” Steve deflects.

“Got a job as a waiter at one of the fancy restaurants,” Bucky says. “Staying at the Y so I don’t spend two hours on the subway every day. What’re _you_ doing on this side of town?” 

Fortunately Steve’s teeth are chattering too hard to talk, so he can’t answer.

“Christ,” Bucky says. “Let’s get you in out of the cold.” 

Bucky whisks Steve up the stairs when they get to the Y. Soon Steve is dripping on the floor of Bucky’s small, snug room, and Bucky is unbuttoning Steve’s thin sopping coat. He tosses Steve’s coat aside and starts in on his shirt buttons.

Steve’s dreamed about Bucky undressing him for years, but not like this. “Get off me,” Steve says, pushing ineffectually at Bucky’s hands, and Bucky gives him a long look and then lifts his hands away. 

“I’ll get you a cup of coffee,” Bucky says. “I want you out of those wet clothes and under the covers when I get back, you hear?”

Once he’s wrapped up in the blankets like a swaddled baby, Steve sets his mind to coming up with a reason for his presence on this side of town. Something that isn’t, _I was banging one of the guys on the eighth floor of the Y, but then he dumped me, and I’ve been walking around for hours ‘cause I’m too miserable to go home._

He wonders if Bucky knows about the seamier side of the Y. Probably not. 

He’s too cold to think straight. He still hasn’t come up with anything when Bucky returns with a cup of coffee. Steve’s hand is shaking so much that he splashes coffee all over his wrist when he takes the cup.

“Shit,” Bucky says, and wipes Steve’s skin with his handkerchief, and crouches down to hold the cup himself so Steve can drink from it. “You get sick too easy to let yourself get this cold, Stevie.”

Steve hates being called Stevie. “Sure thing, Jimmy.” 

Bucky messes up Steve’s hair, but he doesn’t crack wise back, which tells Steve more than anything that Bucky’s really worried about him. “Here,” Bucky says, and he sets the coffee cup aside on the little hard chair that sits by the bed like a bedside table. “I’d better warm you up.”

And then he shucks off his coat and his boots and he climbs right into bed with Steve, and wraps himself around him like an extra layer of blankets, if a blanket had two strong arms to hold Steve tight and a prickly chin to scratch Steve’s forehead. 

Steve’s shivering again, and it’s not just cold. “You oughta shave more often,” he tells Bucky, a little catch in his voice that he hopes Bucky will take for a last vestige of chattering teeth. 

“I’ll take advice from you when you learn enough not to walk around in the sleet, punk,” Bucky advises him. His chest rumbles as he speaks.

Steve draws in a breath to make some smart remark, but he can’t think of anything to say, so he just lets that breath out again, real slow. The radiator grumbles and kicks on. He can hear the sleet pinging on the window. 

“Thanks, Buck,” Steve mumbles. 

“Sure, whatever,” Bucky says. He messes up Steve’s hair again, more gently this time. “Where’d you be without me? Probably freeze to death somewhere the moment my back was turned.”


End file.
